I feel as if i was just scammed out of $6.00 membership fee. I only purchase rare items here on ebay. It told me that if i upgrade that i can lower my offset to 3 second wich can almost never be outsniped expecially for rare items hard non replaceables so after i win a few auctions here and lose some. I decided to upgrade for $6.00 so i can lower my offset to 3 seconds so basically the only reason i upgrade is for this reason. i edit the amount of my bid after i upgrade and change the offst to 3 seconds and get this message after.(There is little or no reason to keep bid offset lower than 6 seconds. You get no advantage with it, quite the opposite - bid increment rule works against you, and you also dramatically increase chances of your snipe being late.) So why does it keep telling me to upgrade so i can change the offset to 3 seconds if it does nothing or could make it worse. So why did i pay $6.00 to upgrade if changing the offset makes it worse. I feel they should say this before u upgrade not use it as a way to intice you to buy the upgrade then after tell u that it can mess it up if u use the item there bragging about so weird I feel scammed.

Before I say anything else - note that I do issue refunds, so if you changed your mind, just email me.

I never, never, enticed anyone to subscribe to mirror because of 3-sec offset, nor did I brag about it as some great feature. I introduced it only because users asked for it, and yet I repeatedly said my opinion on the forum and outside of it, and my opinion is that 3-sec offset is useless and counterproductive.

I think that mirror subscription is very useful, and a real bargain at what is priced at, but for entirely different reasons than 3-sec offset.

I support Mario on this, he has never promoted the 3 second offset as an advantage, quite the opposite ... and the reason for restricting its' use to Mirror members has far more to do with discouraging people from using it, especially when they don't have the back-up of a second server that is provided with a mirror subscription, than anything to do with encouragement or promotion of the Mirror subscription option.

That said, once you have the backup server working for you it is not common for 3 second snipes to fail, without it there would be more cause to be concerned about using it.

The primary advantage of a Mirror subscription is the significantly increased reliability provided by it, that is why the option is named as it is and not the '3 second snipe' option.

There are other nice little features available to mirror subscribers, that you might like to investigate before you decide whether or not you would like a refund, the 3 second snipe option I would regard as the least useful of those._________________Mark

I don't know guys. Gixen is offered for free and for a minuscule fee of $6 you also get a mirror service and a psychological warm blanket of 3 seconds sooner for a snipe.

What else could you ask for, for crying out loud?

I didn't need the mirror service, I just felt it was a good thing to subscribe to Gixen for $6 just as a sort of a "thank you" to mario and his great program.

The original poster needs to take a break and realize that a lot of hard work is behind Gixen, and by him making those unfounded accusations is a sign that somebody can't see the good in something that is obviously looking them right in the face.

I've worked with clients like this, and no matter what you do, they always have something bad to say about something. Give them a million dollars and they'll complain that they have to count it all to make sure its all there. <shakes head in disbelief>

This is an example of a miserable freeloader ...Come on; Crying over $6.00!
Reward the work of others. I bet you have benefited by winning a lot of auctions. This is a good service and from what I have seen, The Gixen people are about the most responsive and upfront that they can be. I'm a real eBay user and happy with their service. Thanks Mario and Cupid
Later, Guillermo.

All I can say is that if half of the business in America would have the courtesy, responsiveness and patience towards their customers, as Mario has with his...it'll be a total different ball game.
We are lucky we can access this software for $6; I would pay north of that with no problem!

I am thankful that geniuses and artists and good people, no matter how hard it is, will eventually be recognized. I am doubly thankful that also goes for idiots.
... of course that is my opinion and I might be wrong.

I've been paying 70 dollars a year to another service until a week ago when I woke up and said what the heck am I spending this much for? I signed up today and after my first successful snipe sent the 6 dollars.. that's nothing. I don't really need the 3 second snipe, but you are saving far more than 6 dollars in the long run by using a service like this and something like this does cost money for the people who own it. Calling it a scam for six dollars seems ridiculous and harsh IMO. I call it a savings.

I would be really measured in calling something a scam, because that is a pretty strong word, and when you use it to describe something where you feel outdone is harsh. I feel you are being unfair on Gixen in this instance.

I set out to write scripts to do sniping, but then found Gixen for only $6 a year, and supported with backup mirrors (the fee is ridiculous) and recovered the $6 with the first snipe I placed.

I find that the main reason that sniping works is that when you bid, you reveal the real value (this is the value that you place on that item) to others and they are more confident in bidding just that little bit higher ... Gixen avoids those unhealthy (for the buyer) bidding wars.

So, before rushing to condemn Gixen, I'd hope you'll read the comments others have made, and Mario is a pretty decent bloke so you always have the option of communicating with him. Even on eBay, the negative feedbacks would be halved if people communicated more openly.

Like other members here I'm just happy to give my $6 as a way of saying "Thank you" to Mario for the excellent service he provides. I've been a subscriber for a couple of years now and I will be happy to renew my membership over the coming years. Successfully sniping has probably saved me hundreds of $ over many many bids.

As a new user of Gixen, I too, was quite happy to upgrade. For several years, I have used a sniping tool which had a fee of $5 a month for an upgrade. On balance, this service is a real bargain.
Also, I just love the Desktop Manager

I wish I'd discovered Gixen sooner than a year ago. It's an amazing tool. For me the best feature is the ability to change my mind and delete before the auction ends. Too often in the past I've bid on things and ended up with stuff that goes in the 'What on earth was I thinking?' category. Not to mention bidding on something I really want and then seeing the same item from a different seller in much better condition with a lower P&P.

There's the ability to use Gixen gratis, free & for nothing (you can't say fairer than that) and whingeing about something the developer wasn't even pushing as a feature and making him sound like a chiselling moustache-twirling arch-swindler? Well, it seems somewhat churlish to me, not to mention wholly inaccurate. I for one am grateful for his geek-tastic skills and only $6 for extra features? I've saved that many times over. Thank you, Mario.

I'll try to make this fairly short and to the point.
I'm a 12 year highly experienced seller and buyer.
I'm not new at utilizing 'sniping' programs, I've used Gixen for about four years, the last three using the subscribed mirror allowing for the second (mirror) server and the additional 3 second choice which I utilize every time.
And I just renewed my subscription for a fifth year ten min. ago.

As a few others have mentioned, "$6.00 is a bargain" which pays for itself in often just one auction won.
And it's with pleasure that I contribute towards the sites creator/owner's time, knowledge and maintenance required to run Gixen.

While everyone's individual "mileage may vary"... I personally win 99.9% of every action bid on using the 3 second lead in, though the bottom line will always be "highest bid wins".
I find Gixen's servers as well as 3 second lead in to be highly accurate.

im not sure if i ever said THANK YOU or not or what .. this may be my very first post.. first hello GIXEN FAMILY ..im pete...hope all are well...

i simply want to say that honestly with all the money that i saved using this service.. {let me say that at first i didn't do the mirror ..like anyone i wanted to check everything out} ..but after just a few snipes i will always go with the mirror service from now on.even if it did nothing but help GIXEN to stay afloat.. i would donate the 6$ yearly.. thats how awesome and valuable of a service this is. IMO....

ONE THING-and just my opinion again... with items that are "have to have" items.. if you cant be their and even if your snipe has never failed you.. im sure a lot of folks might agree in those cases-you may just want to bid or LIVE SNIPE the item..IE- BID AT THE LAST SECOND MANUALLY. no snipe software is 100%0...and even if it was HUMAN ERROR and EBAY would still keep it from being 100%.

ok i rambled already enough..i just want to say that im very very grateful for this service and the 6$ for all you get.. is a drop in the bucket.. i saved that on my first snipe 3x over!.. THANK YOU SO MUCH-peter

hi ya, yep I'm nu to Gixen and I'm a mirror subscriber and I lost my first snipe too under funding my bid... lesson learned as there was little in the winning bid over mine. So as I have learned, just from reading items on this forum, ( worth $6 bucks on it's own ) that Mirror is not a win assured tool, but a back up tool, provided so you get to bid if things go pear shaped at Gixen H.Q..... don't complain about $6 buck buddy, it makes you sound mean and zi, no one is ripping anyone off at Gixen, Thanks Mario, I'll pass Gixen on.

I don't know guys. Gixen is offered for free and for a minuscule fee of $6 you also get a mirror service and a psychological warm blanket of 3 seconds sooner for a snipe.

What else could you ask for, for crying out loud?

I didn't need the mirror service, I just felt it was a good thing to subscribe to Gixen for $6 just as a sort of a "thank you" to mario and his great program.

The original poster needs to take a break and realize that a lot of hard work is behind Gixen, and by him making those unfounded accusations is a sign that somebody can't see the good in something that is obviously looking them right in the face.

I've worked with clients like this, and no matter what you do, they always have something bad to say about something. Give them a million dollars and they'll complain that they have to count it all to make sure its all there. <shakes head in disbelief>

And I feel the same 3 years n from this post. Thank you to Mario and the team for a superb program.

I'm a gixen newbie. And apparently I decided to join in the middle of a crisis. ~> [url.gixen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7732[/url] For a free service I was surprised at how quickly Mario dug in and worked on the problem. For what started out as a not happy beginning, thanks to Mario I still walked away with a very good first impression.

After things settled down I did some checking into other services. One fee service had an item in their FAQ: "You don't respond to my emails! Are you still there?" (Eeek!) I saw prices as high as $1.99 per snipe, $79.00 a year... And someone shows up here and has the cojones to complain about a FREE service with an optional $6.00 annual fee if you want the 'belt & suspenders' addition of the mirror service? Gimme a break.

I'm a very low volume eBayer. Even so, sniping is the rule of the day if you want to win most auctions. I really don't feel like I need the mirror service but next time I open Desk Top when I need to place a bid I'm paying the $6.00 annual fee to support Mario and the great service he provides. In the greater scheme of things - it's the very least I can do.

I am finding in my short history of sniping that the bottom line is: if you are going to be out bid you are going to be out bid. Whether your bid is placed 2 seconds before the auction close or 6 seconds neither of those snipes can foresee what another bidder or sniper is willing to pay.

While there certainly are advantages to sniping your snipe being placed 2 seconds before the auction close is not an advantage when a snipe coming in at the 6 second mark has the higher bid. In that scenario you can lose just on the basis of bid hierarchy alone.

I have been doing manual sniping for many years, and while it can be more exciting, my memory and sense of the passage of time are not so great so I've missed many auctions I probably could have won. Not to mention my toddler unplugging the modem, my boss or co-worker coming into my office at work to talk to me at a critical moment, family obligations keeping me away from internet access, my ISP or whatever going on the fritz, etc.

I have always assumed somebody must have something to automate this sniping, but I never looked into it until recently. I never imagined it would be offered free in any form, nor did I imagine the additional advantages that could be got for only $6.

In my manual sniping I generally have aimed for the 4-to-5 second mark, but on reflection now I suspect most of the toughest competitors out there were probably already using Gixen or something similar all along and therefore not even at their computers to "react" as I had previously imagined them to be. That extra second is not going to hurt me as far as those people are concerned, and any tiny disadvantage it might offer with live snipers is probably more than offset by the possibility of "getting there first" with a bid adequate to beat others who judge values about the same as I do.

Gixen offers so many advantages, it would be foolish not to pay $6 a year for it. One little thing I like is that once I enter my bid on Gixen and it is on the list here then I can delete that item from my watch list on eBay... the length of my watch list there is generally hovering right around the maximum limit, and I really appreciate the extra space Gixen opens up. And the freedom from being tied to computers on weekends, from shamming my employer during working hours, from setting alarm clocks I can't hear when machinery is running, etc. is almost priceless.

I'm adding my two cents worth to the following quote. He has stated much more eloquently than I ever could, exactly how I feel about Mario and his excellent service. I have been using it for over 10 years and the quality of service is equal to or better than what you would pay for. I also signed up for the Mirror service mostly as a "Thank-you" to Mario, but also because you -know- it's fool-proof. I've never once missed an auction and the only ones that I didn't win were because my bid wasn't high enough. Just weighing with my opinion, Thank you, Mario!

Forrest wrote:

I don't know guys. Gixen is offered for free and for a minuscule fee of $6 you also get a mirror service and a psychological warm blanket of 3 seconds sooner for a snipe.

What else could you ask for, for crying out loud?

I didn't need the mirror service, I just felt it was a good thing to subscribe to Gixen for $6 just as a sort of a "thank you" to mario and his great program.

The original poster needs to take a break and realize that a lot of hard work is behind Gixen, and by him making those unfounded accusations is a sign that somebody can't see the good in something that is obviously looking them right in the face.

I've worked with clients like this, and no matter what you do, they always have something bad to say about something. Give them a million dollars and they'll complain that they have to count it all to make sure its all there. <shakes head in disbelief>

I have to say I buy a large quantity of small value items and used to use Auction Sniper. I paid the $6 as I have saved a small fortune with GIXEN. Don't know how they do it. It's risky to snipe anything less tha 6'seconds. This service is the very best.